Oct. 15, 2013

Detroit Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias runs to third base on a double by Torii Hunter (not pictured) during the ninth inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox. / Bob DeChiara / USA TODAY Sports

Written by

Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Jose Iglesias will start at shortstop in Wednesday’s Game 4, manager Jim Leyland said after the Tigers lost to Boston, 1-0, tonight in the AL Championship Series. The Red Sox lead the series, 2-1.

Leyland said he would like to have Iglesias at short because Doug Fister, the Tigers’ Game 4 starter, is a groundball pitcher. Justin Verlander, today’s starter, is a strikeout and flyball pitcher, so Leyland doesn’t feel as much need to have Iglesias’ superb defense at short.

The manager has to think back only to Sept. 2 at Fenway Park, when Iglesias turned three beautiful double plays behind Fister in a 3-0 Tigers win.

Leyland said before Game 3 the only way Iglesias wouldn’t start tonight is if Andy Dirks had a big game in his return to the lineup Tuesday. Dirks was 0-for-3, and Iglesias batted for him in the eighth and struck out on three pitches.

Leyland is now going game-by-game with his lineup choice of Iglesias or one of his leftfielders from the regular season. Peralta, the team’s starting shortstop until his 50-game suspension, has given Leyland this flexibility by playing an adequate leftfield. What Leyland decides dictates whether Peralta plays left or short.

Here is how those decisions have gone:

■ Game 5 of the Oakland series: Lefty-swinging Don Kelly had gotten two of the Tigers’ four hits against right-hander Sonny Gray in Game 2. Leyland put Kelly in left and moved Peralta to short.

■ Game 1 against Boston: With left-hander Jon Lester starting for the Red Sox, Leyland went with Iglesias’ right-handed bat at short.

■ Game 2 against Boston: With right-hander Clay Buchholz starting, Leyland again showed the preference for an extra left-handed bat in the lineup. So he put Kelly in left. Kelly went 0-for-3 and is 0-for-5 in his two recent starts.

■ Game 3: Leyland turns to Dirks against right-hander John Lackey. Dirks hit .256 this year, a big drop from his .322 mark of last year. It is Dirks’ first start since Game 1 in Oakland, 11 days ago.

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“He has struggled a little bit, and he’s been off awhile now and had time to clear the cobwebs a little bit,” Leyland said. “We’re not getting a lot of production out of leftfield unless we play Peralta there. He’s done it a little bit off Lackey (2-for-5, including a triple). I just thought we’d change it up a little bit and run him out there and see if we could catch lightning in a bottle.”

Dirks provided that kind of lightning with a three-run, pinch-hit homer in the Tigers’ tying six-run comeback against the Chicago White Sox last month.

In his three-year career, Dirks has batted in the ninth spot six times. He didn’t hit there this year.

Then Leyland alluded to leadoff man Austin Jackson and his high volume of strikeouts in this postseason. “That is what it is,” Leyland said. “He’s our guy up top.”

Note: If rightfielder Torii Hunter had caught Red Sox slugger David Ortiz’s drive in the eighth inning of Game 2 on Sunday, Leyland said “it probably would have been one of the greatest catches I ever saw —it would have been unbelievable.”

Contact John Lowe: jlowe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freeptigers.

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